The Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is protected under Directive 79/409/EEC (the Birds Directive). It is not a huntable species (it is not on Annex II of the Birds Directive). Its deliberate capture and killing, disturbance, destruction of its nests or taking of its eggs can only be allowed by Member States if this is done in accordance with the derogation system set out in Article 9 of the Directive.
In most European regions, increasing populations of the Great Cormorant, in particular of the continental race or subspecies Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis, are putting pressure on fisheries, aquaculture and angling activities, thus creating various types of social or socioeconomic conflicts.
On the basis of the concerns from the various social and economic sectors affected, the European Parliament requested that the European Commission took action to minimise the impact of cormorants on fish fauna, commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture in Europe.
The contractor responsible for developing the present EU Cormorant Platform and for organising the Pan-European counts of cormorants undertake this work within a project entitled ‘Sustainable Management of Cormorant Populations’ and the acronym ‘CorMan’.
The contractor, consisting of Aarhus University in Denmark and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the United Kingdom, initiated the project in 2011. To achieve project success these two institutions formed a consortium and hired six sub-contractors with complimentary expertise on cormorants and cormorant-fish-fisheries interactions. The consortium also established a Stakeholders’ Liaison Group in order to connect selected European stakeholders to the project (for more information see Stakeholders). Furthermore, a partnership was formed with IUCN/Wetlands International Cormorant Research Group to ensure the use of appropriate counting methods and collaboration with a large number of volunteer counters throughout Europe.